Across the Library

I'm in the mood to read a book that isn't about a main character who is super special and talented, who will always save the day.  I want a book from Draco Malfoy's point of view, or Neville!  Maybe Jasper, Rosalie, or Jacob.  You'd still see all the stuff the great one does, but from someone else's standpoint.  And, you'd get to see more about their life.  Am I the only one who thinks a book like that would be interesting?  Can you name any books like that that I should read?

  One thing I can't deny about Ellen Hopkins is that the lady knows how to write!  I love the flow of every one of her books, the intriguing hooks at the end of each character section, and the different format of each poem/verse.  Some of the layouts are simple and straightforward, while others creatively separate a word or two of each paragraph, forming a separate sentence out of those words that touches on the essence of the entire poem.   In all of these aspects, Fallout does not disappoint. Fallout is the third book of the Crank series, which is a fictional account of real life events that Ellen Hopkins went through with her own daughter.  She manages to weave truth and fiction together in a fashion that keeps the reader tied to the story.  The two previous books of the series were written from Kristina/Bree's point of view, while Fallou t takes a different perspective and shows the reader how Kristina's choices and mistakes have affected the live...

Cassandra Clare has done it again - she's written another beautiful novel that captures readers with all of the supernatural characters, twists and turns, and even a bit of steampunk!  Clockwork Angel is the first of a prequel series by Clare.  The series, Infernal Devices , takes place around 100 years or so before her Mortal Instrument (MI) series, and though you do see some of the characters, and other characters' last names in the Mortal Instrument series, for the most part, the new series has a new cast of characters.  The series is set in the Victorian Era, but in the same world as the original series.  Both of these series by Clare are full of supernatural characters that will interest fans of all types.  There are Shadowhunters, who have the blood of the angels, vampires, werewolves, warlocks, faeries, demons, shapeshifters, and a very intelligent cat.  In Clockwork Angel , there are even clockwork people to interest the steampunk fans....

 What a strange little book!  Well, technically it's not a little book at all, but strange indeed! I knew I wanted to read this book before it came out.  I love Libba Bray!  I enjoyed her Gemma Doyle series, and though I knew Going Bovine would be completely different, the idea was intriguing and the book trailer of Libba going around in the cow costume was so fun!  It took me a while to finally get around to the book, but I'm glad I did.  A couple of my coworkers who also read a lot of YA fiction told me this book wasn't worth reading.  One of them never even finished the book.  I think it was just too strange for them.  I'd heard a lot of things about the book, including reasons why some parents wouldn't let their teens read it.  Still, I went in with an open mind and an open heart.  It didn't take long for me to see how strange the book was, and I could understand why the one coworker didn't finish it.  She thought it...

I almost waited too long to see this movie in the theater.  The day I decided that I had to see it was the last day it was at our big Regal Cinema, and I missed it.  Luckily, it had moved to the older, smaller Regal, so we saw it the next day.  As my earlier post says, I greatly enjoyed the graphic novel series, so I was really looking forward to how it would translate to the movie screen.  When books are turned into movies, there are always scenes or even plots that are left out due to time constraints.  With Scott Pilgrim, the fast, jumpy pace of the graphic novels lent well to the time limits of a movie. I love Michael Cera, and though I'm not sure if he was the perfect Scott Pilgrim, he did a great job as the character.  Kieran Culkin was a great Wallace as well, loved that portrayal.  I think Kieran may be around for a while, as he's proving to be a pretty good actor.  As for the other characters, I think most of them were pretty believab...

I promised to return with more of my thoughts on Mockingjay after I had more time to digest the final book of the series.  Initially I wasn't sure how I felt about the end of the book, though I admit to loving the book as a whole.  Now, I think that there are certain things about the end that I would have preferred to see end differently.  Namely, I would have liked to see more interaction between Katniss and those she cared about.  I don't think we got to see enough of those relationships being rebuilt, or in the case of one of them, continuing at all.   But just as with life, things don't always end the way we want them to, and we don't always get the perfect ending.  With that in mind, even if I'm unhappy with the ending, that doesn't mean it's unrealistic.  For such a hard story, with so much pain throughout, it shouldn't have the perfect little ending anyway.  One of the deaths that people seemed to be so upset about made me think, and I th...

I've fallen behind, but I will soon post more of my thoughts on Mockingjay , as well as reviews for Going Bovine by Libba Bray and Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare!

Don't worry, I'm going to try and stay away from spoilers, at least for now!  In my opinion, the hardest part of writing any book or story is writing the ending.  I imagine that it's probably incredibly more difficult when you are writing the ending of a book that has been a popular series.  The author always knows that some fans will love it and some fans will hate it.  Of course you can't please everyone. That said, how do I feel about Mockingjay?  As I book, I loved it, and I wasn't disappointed at all.  The action was just as fast-paced and captivating as the two previous books of the series.  Suzanne Collins has mastered the art of keeping the reader from getting bored.  Around half way through the book, I got a little teary, but I won't say why just yet.  Nor will I reveal what part of the ending of the series made me cry.  Maybe later I'll come back, when more people have finished the book, or when I figure out if there's a wa...

I wanted to love this game, but unfortunately, I was disappointed in it.  The Hunger Games is a great book series, and I've been anxiously awaiting the release of the third book, which is tomorrow!  I bought the game for my library and held a small program for teens to come in and play the game.  The night before, I played with the game with my husband in order to learn the rules ahead of time, so I could better assist the teens as they learned to play.  I guess I just wanted more from the game than it was able to provide.  We knew from the box that it was a strategy game, but I'd hoped that it would at least pull some trivia form the game.  In the books, before the tributes actually go into the Hunger Games, they went through a couple of days of training in various events such as knot tying, wrestling, archery, edible plants, etc.  The board game takes place during those training days.  Players choose a district tribute to play from one of the ...

Just finished reading the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, and I must say, I adore them.  After seeing the previews for the movie, I was vaguely interested in the graphic novels.  Then my coworker/friend, Kimberly, who is also known as the Children's and YA Acquisition Librarian, asked me if I was interested in adding them to my teen collection.  Fast forward to me checking them out immediately after they were cataloged. I loved the fast, whimsy, outlandish style of these.  Most graphic novels jump all over the place, but sometimes that can be confusing.  Scott Pilgrim uses that fast pace and makes it work for him.  I liked how it was so over the top and unbelievable that you didn't think about how most of the stuff could never happen.  That's the whole point, and why it rocks! So basically Scott sees this girl, Ramona, in his dreams, and starts to like her.  By the time he meets her in real life, he's practically in love with her already. ...

Review written on August 7, 2010 ** Mildly Spoilerish** Books 1 and 2 in the Mercy Falls series I read Shiver last year, shortly after it came out.  I did really enjoy the book and even voted to be sure it would appear on the list for the committee I'm on.  However, I always had one problem with the book -the "cure".  No one else seemed as bothered by this as me, but I just can't get past that.  I did like that there was some science involved with why they turned into the wolves when it was cold.  Despite the so-called cure, the book was good, so of course I wanted to read the second book, Linger . Only ten chapters in, I was highly annoyed by the book already.  The moment that Grace said that Isabel was cold and Isabel said it was Grace that was hot, I just knew that she was going to be sick and how she would be "cured".  At first I thought that Sam had gotten her sick somehow, but at least that wasn't the case.  At least what Cole d...

Review written on July 16, 2010  I should start by saying that I've become disillusioned by the whole Twilight series.  When I first read the books, I whizzed through them and enjoyed them.  If I think of them only as light, fun, fluff, then I can still find them enjoyable.  But as a member of a committee that selects the best teen books of the current year, I can't help but cringe when I think about the books.  They are fast reads, and if you want something that you don't really have to think about, then they can be enjoyable.  But they really aren't that well-written, and there are certain things in the books that I dislike in regards to vampire mythology.  I have seen the movies - I felt that the first movie was just okay, the second movie was better, and I liked the third movie too, but there are still things that I cringe over.  As far as characters go, I've never been a fan of Bella, or Edward for that matter.  As far as the books g...

Well, the main reason it took me forever to create the blog is that I couldn't come up with the perfect name.  Everything I wanted was taken, so I kept stalling, hoping the perfect name would come to me.  I liked a lot of suggestions, but nothing ever really clicked.  Then a friend of mine suggested I use a title of a song or the name of an episode of one of my favorite tv shows.  So today I started browsing episode titles, and finally something inspired me to try "Across the Library".  Something about it really connects with me, and so, here we are. So what will I be posting here? Read the sidebar! Book reviews. New books. Books I'm crazy about. Library craziness. Teen services at the library. Program ideas. Workshops I've been to. My favorite book of the moment. Fiction. Non-fiction. Historical Fiction. Mysteries. Science Fiction. Fantasy. Romance. Graphic novels. Anything and everything else related to books or the library. For a while...